My poor, poor face. I’m in the middle of a snot fest and I’m now understanding why I was brought up on a diet of haliborange. Throughout the year I’m not a terribly sickly person (I was as a kid) which is just aswell because I’m the biggest wimp you could meet (probably). I even have a ‘cold’ voice – you know that weak-sounding, more-than-slightly whiney tone that resonates through the nose more than the throat? My poor family. Anyway, this week’s cold has been particularly frustrating because of how beautiful it’s been outside! The whole family have had it and thus we’ve been mostly quarantined indoors through the weekend. I decided to make a break for it yesterday and thus needed a face of makeup to disguise my ravaged skin. It’s so dry and dull, combined with the snot-induced nose flakes and hormonal jaw-line mega zits? Not pretty.

I massaged my freshly-washed skin with a combination of Liz Earle SuperSkin Concentrate* and Alpha H All For Eve Age Delay Facial Oil* in an attempt to revive some life. Kinda like a cardiac massage for the face before giving my driest spots (flakey bits) at light cover of Lucas Paw Paw Ointment (this stuff is great for disguising nose flakes). I went with the spring-like weather and injected some colour onto my face with a bright streak of blue under my lower lashline. This is my favourite way to wear the shade and I do it quite a lot in the Summer. Anyway, enough talk. Here’s my Springtime in the Sahara FOTD:

I think I could have done with a touch of highlighter but I’m otherwise looking fairly perky considering I felt like DEATH. Like my Tammy Faye Baker eyelashes? Tough – I do! I never put that much on my lower lashes normally but now I’m gonna (until I get bored of it).

A new foundation always fills me with hope. The promise of flawless skin is a tempting one, something we all aspire to. I’m a firm believer that getting your base right is half the battle to looking good. For some of us, it’s frankly more of a war than a skirmish.

I don’t generally wear concealer. I haven’t perfected my application technique and therefore rely on my foundation to do the work of both, I’m a hard task master! I know this isn’t ideal… and means that I don’t usually expect a flawless, porcelain finish. But I do want enough coverage to look polished and non-blotchy!

I’m a fan of mineral foundations, I find them quick to apply without the need for expert blending or shade matching. Overall, except on the very driest of skintypes – they’re a pretty forgiving formulation.

I’ve heard that the CoffeeBerry (an antioxidant) formula is particularly suited to troubled skin types. One of the foundation’s claims is that the CoffeeBerry extracts actually help to improve photodamage, rosacea and dryness which leaves me wondering whether this is skincare, foundation or a bit of both?

While the claims sound good, I can’t accurately verify them with any confidence other than by wearing this single foundation throughout the Winter and Spring and I’m simply too in love with all my other products to push them to the back of my cupboard. So let’s just focus on the foundation aspects shall we?

I received shade #1. The lightest shade of the 6 available and to my eye, it’s not that light and it’s quite warm toned. I’d call it light medium, a NW/NC20 in terms of depth.

However, as I mentioned earlier… mineral foundations are generally quite forgiving when it comes to shade selection and the Priori CoffeeBerry Perfecting Minerals Foundation is no different. I can wear this shade quite comfortably on my NW15 skintone.

My favourite thing about this product is the packaging… minerals are a notoriously difficult formula to use without fuss but Priori have implemented a really great packaging system. The pot is wide and squat with a large bowl-like lid. This lid makes a perfect vessel to swirl your brush around and enables you to pick the product up evenly.

When I opened this, I didn’t peel off the protective sticker which covers the sifter holes. Instead, I grabbed a biro and punched through the sticker, exposing only about half of the openings. That way, I can ensure that I don’t flood the pot with product whenever I turn it upside down.

Enough of the packaging, talk about getting caught up in the details! How does it look?

I really like the finish it provides. It’s glowy and natural compared to other mineral formulas. I described it on Twitter last week as ‘soft focus’. It doesn’t disguise my fine lines but seems to somehow soften them. Coverage is light/medium in my opinion… it evens out my skintone without concealing. Tones down my redness but doesn’t disguise it completely.

If you have acne scarring or prefer something with more serious coverage, I don’t think this product will be for you. I think that the Priori CoffeeBerry Perfecting Minerals Foundation (what a mouthful) is particularly suited to mature skin types.

Despite being a powder, it doesn’t gather or clump on my dry bits and the soft focus, luminous finish would work well on duller skintones. The foundation contains a perfectly respectable SPF25 rating and is priced at around £32.00 for a large 14g pot.

After my rubbish experience trying to snaffle a bargain but effective gentle cleanser, BeautyBay.com generously stepped up to the plate and offered to send me something that they claimed was a personal hero product.

How could I resist?

Priori is a brand that’s new to me but I was interested to discover that the CEO behind the brand is more than just an expert in the field. He actually developed and launched the world’s first glycolic acid (AHA) product in 1983 – frankly, that’s good enough for me.

Do we know what AHA’s are? They’re generally considered as the slightly harsher big sister to Fruit Enzymes but essentially they’re doing the same job. Exfoliation. Obviously, I didn’t wanna use anything harsh on my skin that’s undergoing laser treatment… but at the same time, I’ve fallen for this method of exfoliation in a big way.

So that was my main concern when I was first reading into and looking at the Priori Gentle Facial Cleanser. The clue however, is in the name. Gentle.

I’ve been using this creamy cleanser nightly for over a month now and I’m pleased with it. No tingling, no irritation, no hint that I’m being exfoliated other than that my skin that is remaining soft, supple and fresh day after day.

The formula is great, one pump dispenses the perfect amount of product with no waste and the cleansing cream glides over my skin without foaming. It also rinses away instantly leaving no residue behind. I’m not a huge fan of the scent which is practically impossible to describe (trust me, I’ve been sat here trying for the last 10 minutes). It’s quite a clinical smell that stops short of being chemical if that makes any sense? I think I might prefer my products to be a little more girly-scented, how tragic!

I’m finding the Priori Gentle Facial Cleanser non-drying (though I still always follow up with a moisturiser) and most essentially it hasn’t aggravated my skin or any areas of redness. This really does appear to be as gentle as it promises.

This kind of exfoliation can increase your skin’s sensitivity to the sun so as with any product containing AHAs or Enzymes, I’m being careful to ensure that I’m using a facial sunblock of at least SPF30 every day.

Priori Advanced AHA Gentle Facial Cleanser 180ml is priced at £21 and available from BeautyBay.com.